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PROCEEDINGS 



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ANTI-SLAVERY CONVENTION 



WEST RANDOLPH, VERMONT, 

m 

August 24th and 25th, 1858. 



NEW YORK: 

AMERICAN ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY, 

138 Nassau Street. 
1858. 



VM s- /.-i 



IN EXCHANGE 
. 2Fhl905 



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1-^ 

PROCEEDINGS 



In conformity with a published Call for a Conven- 
tion of all persons interested in the cause of Universal 
Freedom, a highly respectable number of persons as- 
sembled at Granite Hall, West Randolph, Vt., on 
Tuesday. August 24th, at 10 o'clock, A. M. Rev. N. 
R. Johnston called the meeting to order, and read the 
Call. 

Rev. Jehiel Claflin, of West Brookfield, Vt., was 
chosen Chairman, pro tempore, and a Committee, con- 
sisting of Benj. W. Dyer, of Randolph, N. R. Johns- 
ton, of Topsham, and James M. Coburn, of Brook- 
field, was appointed to nominate a permanent organ- 
ization. After conference, they reported as follows : 

For Presicle7it—Rev. N. R. Johnston, of Topsham. 

For Vice Presidents — James Hutchinson, Jr., of 
Braintree ; Enoch Hebard, of Randolph. 

For Secretaries^ Jehiel Claflin, of West Brook- 
field ; Samuel May, Jr., of Leicester, Mass. 

These were elected unanimously, Rev. Mr. Johns- 
ton stating that he took the place assigned him not 
from choice, (though glad to serve the Anti- Slavery 
cause always,) but his protest had been overruled. 



Prayer was offered by Rev. Jchicl Claflin. 

The following persons were chosen a Committee on 
Resolutions : — Wm. Lloyd Garrison, Jehiel Claflin, 
P. Pillsbury, Benj. W. Dyer, J. M. Coburn. 

The Convention was addressed by Parker Pillsbu- 
ry, while the Committee were preparing business. 

Mr. PiLLSBURY urged that there was no man or wo- 
man here, or in the country, who has not the same 
interest for the overthrow of slavery that Mr. Garri- 
son himself has,— not one whose duty to be actively 
laboring for this end is not equally great. Never, 
said he, has a more important Convention than the 
present been held in the State of Vermont, nor has 
the State ever seen a more critical hour than this. 
The anti-slavery work is needed to save our whole 
,peoplefrom a moral decline and death, forit is getting 
to be a common idea with the young, that it is of lit- 
tle consequence how they live, or how they spend 
their time and powers. 

Mr. Garrisox, from the Business Committee, re- 
ported a long series of resolutions, affirming the abso- 
lute sinfulness of slaveholding in all circumstances, the 
atheistical character of American slavery, the neces- 
sary opposition of Christianity to slavery and all that 
upholds it, and the actual intidclity of the great body 
of the American churches ;— declaring the Republi- 
can party to be destitute of principle, ccmsistency, and 
moral efficiency, the Northern States to be pursuing 
a suicidal course while remaining in union with slave- 
holders, and setting forth the real character of con- 
sistent and effective Abol'tionism. The rbading of 
the resolutions, which occupied considerable time, was 
listened to with close attention. 



Mr. Garrison addressed the Convention at some 
length. He explicitly denied that the Abolitionists, 
as some of the Vermont journals had cliarged, had 
been the assailants of the churches, or of the politi- 
cal parties. From the beginning, the Anti-Slavery 
movement had sought the cooperation and help of all 
men, and parties, and religious bodies; the abolition- 
ists were themselves members in all these various de- 
nominations and parties, and had remained in them 
until all hope of their doing an anti-slavery work was 
extinguished. When, said Mr. G., Ave found, to our 
horror, that they were arraying themselves on the side 
of slavery, that leading men and clergymen began to 
justify slavery from the Bible, and that no censure 
was uttered or discipline exercised for this heinous 
crime in any of the Northern churches, then we said, 
We leave you, we are against you, because you are 
against the slave ; we will stand by him, and for him, 
and will never cease to rebuke and denounce you, un- 
til you cease from the wrong. When we took this 
stand, by the side of the slave, immediately the 
churches began to denounce us as fanatics and in- 
fidels. The churches assailed the slave and his 
friends, and put themselves on the side of the op- 
pressor. For this we arraign them, as enemies of the 
slave, as false to Christ, and to all the principles of jus- 
tice and righteousness. He gave a clear exposition of 
genuine, uncompromising anti-slavery, as advocated 
by the American Anti-Slavery Society ; and conclud- 
ed with moving — 

That all who are present, or who may be present, at 
our meetings, are hereby invited to participate with 
us in the discussions of this Convention. 



This was unanimously agreed to. 

llev. Jehiel Claflin said there were those in this 
vicinity who charged the abolitionists with hostility 
to Christianity. He called on them to come forward 
here, as invited by the vote, and state their charges 
and objections openly and manfully. 

As the hall was filled, and it became obvious that 
it would not be large enough for subsequent meetings, 
the inquiry was made if one of the meeting-houses in 
the village could not be obtained for the Convention ; 
and Rev. Messrs. Johnston and Claflin were appointed 
a Committee to procure a larger house, if possible. 
Adjourned for an hour. 

Afternoon. The hall was filled, many standing. 
Voted, That the hours of meeting be 10 A. M., half- 
past 1, and 7 P. M. 

Samuel May, Jr., addressed the Convention. Af- 
ter invoking a spirit of candor and fair judgment, he 
glanced at the position occupied by the churches and 
religious bodies of the country relative to the Anti-Sla- 
very cause, and showed that as the « American church- 
es' have been and indeed are the ' Bulwarks of Amer- 
ican Slavery,' it becomes the absolute duty and neces- 
sity of the Abolitionists to expose and rebuke them. 
He declared his conviction, from twenty years' knowl- 
edge of the Anti- Slavery cause, that its identity with 
Christianity, in its spirit and objects, is complete. He 
regarded the true anti-slavery men and women of the 
land as emphatically the Church of Christ in the 
land, and that the opponents of the cause are the real 
enemies of Christ and his religion. 



The following; were appointed, on motion of B. W. 
Dj'er, a Committee on Finance: — James Hutchinson, 
Jr., L. H. Spear, G. C. Fargo, Justin Smith, Avery 
Fitts. 

The President made a brief statement respectinj^ 
the expenses of the Convention, and the claims which 
the American Anti-Slavery Society has for support 
and aid at the hands of the people of Vermont. 

W. L. Garrison vindicated the Anti- Slavery So- 
ciety and cause from the aspersions of their foes, 
showing that their intrinsic truth had given them a life 
that none can destroy, and a power that will eventu- 
ally overthrow all their enemies. Daniel Webster, Fa- 
ther Mathew, and Kossuth, were all named as men 
who had once advocated and served the cause of free- 
dom, but who had betrayed it, and from that moment 
fell, hopelessly, out of the sight and respect of men. 
* Whoso shall fall on this stone shall be broken, but 
on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to pow- 
der.' These things, he said, are for our warning ; 
they show what peril and folly there is in endeavor- 
ing to withstand the Right. Now, our country is 
pledged to slavery ; the slaveholders rule us ; M-e have 
no freedom, nor even a country. The government 
is the tool of slavery. The national flag waves over 
the execrable commerce in African slaves. Against 
such a government I am arrayed, — I trample on such 
a flag. I desire a country of freedom and freemen. 
Let Vermont pioneer the way of freedom, and lead us 
all to triumph. (Warm and protracted applause.) 

Parker Pillsbury said — There is no freedom in 
Vermont, though you boast of the freedom you enjoy 



8 

amonfj your green hills : if you had it, your churches 
would not be shut against the Anti-Slavery cause. 
You talk of your glorious country, while it contains 
four millions of imbrutcd slaves, and hundreds of thou- 
sands of tyrants, wielding over them the bloody lash. 
The other day, I saw that ai\ Agricultural Society in 
(jrcorgia had offered a prize of twenty -five dollars — 
for what, think you ? For one of the beautiful horses 
which your State raises r No. I will tell you — it was 
for the best specimen of a live African younrj ?nan, 
imported from Africa during the jiresent year ! Can 
that advertisement be matched any wherein the wide 
world ? No, sir, not even in Russia ; she is, even 
now, abolishing her feudal serfdom, while this hypo- 
critical and shameless country is re-opening the ac- 
cursed traffic in African slaves ! Vermont is in fel- 
lowship, in union, political and religious, with Geor- 
gia, and enables her to do these deeds of unutterable 
villany, which were impossible but for Northern 
support. Horace Greeley says (and who in the He- 
publican ranks speaks so loud as he r) that Kansas 
must now be discontinued, and the election of 
1860 provided for ; and the party is now being dieted, 
to prepare it for voting for a slaveholder in ISGO, or 
that worse than any slaveholder, a Northern dough- 
face. So low has the political anti-slavery party sunk, 
since that repentant Kentucky slaveholder, [James G. 
Birney,] with Immediate Emancipation on his ban- 
ners, was their Presidential candidate ! Even the Re- 
publican party is now pledged to slavery. And the 
popular religion of the land is pledged to cover 
this abomination, to excuse, to palliate, to justify it. 



Your ministers don't tell you these things ; if they 
did, it would have taken more than brazen hinges, or 
bolts of iron, to have held those church-doors to-day 
closed against this meeting. This bloody sacrifice — 
the immolation, body and soul, of the slave — is the 
condition and price of this union with the slave States. 
And this price, Vermont, with her Collamores and 
Foots, New Hampshire, with her John P. Hales, and 
Massachusetts, with her Sumners and Wilsons, are 
ready to pay ! 

Rev. Mr. Clafiin reported that the meeting-house of 
the ' Christian ' (!) Society could not be obtained for 
the use of the Convention on any terras ; and the 
Congregational house has no committee authorized 
to grant its use for any purpose. 

Adjourned. 

Evening. After a portion of the resolutions had 
been read again — 

Mr. PiLLSBURY said that, as a matter of policy, 
even, nothing could be more weak and mistaken than 
the plan of the Republican party, to limit their eiforts 
to prevent the extension of slavery, while agreeing, as 
it constantly does, through all its Senators and Rep- 
resentatives at Washington, to the constitutional sup- 
poi-t of slavery in even one of fifteen States, The 
death of the old Whig party was a case of deliberate 
suicide ; the fate of the Republican party, as now 
existing, cannot long be delayed. A lady said to me 
the other day that, were she a voter, she would vote 
for no man for President but a Christian ! Why, sir, 
this nation has made it quite impossible that any 
Christian can be its President. Sir, could you put a 



10 

m.in there who Avoultl observe the rules of common 
decency, with tlie ordinary strictness of a Seminole 
savage, you would have a far better and more Chris- 
tian President than you have had for many a year past, 
or than you can ever expect to have while this Union 
continues. Let us not talk of sending ChristUm men 
to do the devilish deeds which this Constitution and 
government require. Let your Bully Brookses be your 
Presidents. When Charles Sumner entered the Sen- 
ate, he took the oath to maintain the constitutional 
rights of the citizens, slaveholders included — the right 
of Preston S. Brooks to whip his slaves as he thought 
proper. Then the avenging angel hovered over, and 
I seemed to hear her shriek as that fearful oath was 
recorded, ' With what measure ye mete, it shall be 
measured to you again ! ' And when the brutal and 
cowardly Brooks sprang upon Charles Sumner una- 
wares, and felled him to the ground, nearly murder- 
ing him, I could not but see how close, and how awful, 
was that retributive justice which had not spared him. 
Rev. N. R. Johnston (Mr. Hutchinson being in 
the chair) said that he made it his aim and rule to 
look upon the Constitution, and upon all institutions 
and men who supj)ort slavery, just as an intelligent slave 
would look. And he hapi>ened to know how such a 
slave did look upon these things. A few years since, 
he knew such a slave man in Kentucky ; he longed so 
earnestly for freedom, that he resolved to seek death 
if lie did not soon obtain it. That man abominated 
and hated the political arrangements and ecclesiasti- 
cal influences which uphold slavery. If we would in- 
telligently and effectually serve the cause of Anti- 
Slavery, let us make it our habitual rule to take the 



11 

slave's stand-point, and try every thing by the tests 
which he applies. 

Wm. Lloyd Garrison said — I hardly know what 
to say to convince the people of the North of the ter- 
rible wrongs inflicted on the slaves, and arouse them 
to act for their rescue. Suppose, sir, I should go 
about New England, advocating the withholding of 
the Bible, the annihilation of marriage, and the refusal 
of all compensation for their labor, with regard to the 
whole population of New England. What would you 
say of me ? Whj^ one universal cry would be raised 
against me. You would denounce me as a villain, 
and would probably drive me from all your towns. 
Yet how would my act, in such case, differ from that 
which is every where done, or defended, in this land, 
in regard to the whole laboring population of the 
South ? The whole population of New England does 
not equal the slave population of the South, in num- 
bers. Yet to these last is every one of the outrages 
done, daily and hourly, which would excite your ex- 
tremest indignation and abhorrence, if only proposed 
to be done to you. Why should you not, one and all, 
speak of the slaveholder, and to him, and act towards 
him, as truth and justice demafld ? He is, by every 
rule of justice, human and divine, a thief and a ty- 
rant. And who is safe from the slaveholder's dia- 
bolical pursuit of his victims ? Once the slave's color 
was a security that no white person w^ould be enslav- 
ed. It is so no longer. The slaveholder now de- 
clares his utter indifference to that matter, and pro- 
claims that all the working population should be en- 
slaved, of whatever color. A filthy amalgamation 



12 

lias licen fjoinf? on, nnd now a vast number of white 
persons are in slavery. And the slaveholders are seek- 
ing such, more and more, for the vilest purposes. I 
liave heard of the case of a beautiful young white wo- 
man, sold for $1000 ! In these circumstances, who, 
I a«k again, is safe r Scores of white persons, children 
included, have disappeared from the North within a few 
years. Doubtless very many of these were swallowed 
up in slavery, — we knorc that some have been. Oh ! 
sir, the wickedness of the land is unspeakable ! What 
terrible doom awaits it for these things ! But there 
arc some who are true, some who have truly washed 
their hands in innocency, some in all communities and 
communions who truly purpose and aim to serve God 
aright. I honor the true church — the Church of Christ 
in truth. I honor it all the more, when I expose and de- 
nounce the corrupt churches which falsely take his 
name. Hut the true church is no outward and visible 
body ; it is composed of all who are in spirit and life true 
to Christ. Outward and visible organizations are man- 
made corporations, and I deny the right of the whole, 
from the Komish church down to the smallest sect of 
yesterday, to claim fqr themselves the name of the 
Church of Christ, and set up a claim to control my 
course, or to be exempt from my criticism. But the 
theme is boundless, and I close. (Great applause fol- 
lowed.) 

Parker Pillsbury called attention to the claims of 
the Anti-Slavery papers— the National Anti-Slavery 
Standard, and The Liberator, 

Adjourned to Wednesday. 



13 



WEDNESDAY—MoRNiNa Session. 

The day was beautifully bright and .warm, and at 
the time to which the Convention was adjourned, (10 
o'clock, A. M.,) the hall was well filled with a most 
intelligent audience of men and women. Rev. Mr. 
Johnston took the chair, and a fervent prayer in be- 
half of the oppressed was offered by Kev. Mr. Bald- 
win, of Randolph. 

D. Tarbell, of Granville, depicted the present 
alarming condition of the country, in reference to 
the elements of slavery, of the corrupt and extrava- 
gant expenditure of money by the government, in- 
flicting a tax of one hundred millions of dollars for 
the present year, &c., and said that the speedy down- 
fall of the country seemed to him certain. 

Mr. Garrison read again several of the resolutions 
before the Convention. 

Rev. N. R. Johnston read an article from the 
Christia7i Messenger, of Northfield, which claimed 
that Vermont is a strong anti-slavery State, but de- 
claring that it could not unite with those who cry, 
* Down with the Constitution, and Down with the 
Church, to get rid of Slaver5^' He closed with pre- 
senting the following resolutions, which he said he 
had himself drawn up, and was glad that they came 
from himself, an Orthodox Presbyterian minister, 
rather than from any other one in the meeting : — 

Resolved, That we have no quarrel with any 
church, as such, but only in so far as that church mav 
be pro-slavery ; and we owe it to God, to the slave, 



14 

and to our common holy religion, to testify against 
tho^c religious denominations which fellowship slave- 
holders by receiving them to the communion table, 
voting for them to otlice, uniting with them in reli- 
gious associations, and recognizing their Christian 
character, as pro-slavery in position, whatever may be 
the anti-slavery profession of the members. 

Hesolved, That slaveholding is the worst kind of 
practical inlidelity, and that those ministers, editors 
and professed Christians who cry out 'infidel' against 
those who are laboring for the deliverance of the slave 
act very inconsistently — not to say, in an unchristian 
manner — so long as they voluntarily continue to sus- 
tain a slaveholding government, or have membership 
in jJTO-slavcry ch arches. 

Resolved, That as the Anti-Slavery reform is emi- 
nently moral and religious, the ministers of religion 
should be active leaders in it ; and it is to the hurt of the 
cause of pure and undeliled religion that they do not 
come • to the help of the Lord against the mighty ' — 
to the deliverance of the slave from the power of the 
oppressor— on the alleged excuse that those who are 
active in this reform do not agree with them on other 
questions. 

Resolved, That we cannot hope for the full redemp- 
tion of Vermont from the spirit and power of slavery, 
until her press be true to the cause of the slave, and 
rihcs above the fear of sectarian disfavor and party 
condemnation. 

r. PiLLsiiLuv made some admirable remarks upon 
the various misrepresentations of our movement which 
we arc sure to encounter every where, and have al- 
ready encountered from some in Vermont. 



15 

Rev. Mr. Baldwin was called upon to speak. He 
said he had not expected to speak. He had long 
heard of some of the speakers here, especially of Mr. 
Garrison. He had never seen Mr. G. until yester- 
day ; he had heard him with pleasure, and could give 
a hearty Ameii to nearly all that he said ; a majority 
of his speech he endorsed in full ; his arguments they 
could not gainsay. I have, said Mr. B., regarded 
myself for a long time as an abolitionist, and I 
should like to tell you just where I stand. I have 
long been connected with the Baptist church, and see 
no necessity of leaving it. Should a slaveholding 
Baptist, D.D. or otherwise, come to my church, I 
would not ask him to my pulpit, nor to sit with me in 
the desk, — I would not. The press is a great lever, 
and Mr. Garrison is using it powerfully. The ballot- 
box is another lever, which many are using well. I 
belong to the Republican party, and I believe that, 
had it not been for the Republican party, Kansas 
would have been admitted as a slave State. Mr. B. 
spoke at length and approvingly of the course of the 
Republicans in Congress. 

Mr. J. Hutchinson proposed the following resolu- 
tion : — 

Resolved, That as anti-slavery men, we are anxious 
to do all in our power to overthrow the abominable 
institution of slavery, and while laboring for this end, 
we will do all in our power to build up and sustain 
the present Republican party, believing as we do 
that through that means we can most directly and ef- 
fectually aid in securing freedom to the slave. 



16 

llev. Mr. Johnston- (Mr. Hebard being in the 
clitiir) said — Our venerable friend who spoke last re- 
ferred to two levers to be used in the anti-slaver v 
work. There is another lever, said Mr. J., which I 
regard as far more powerful than either of these. 

Mr. Baldwin. I beg to say that I did not mean 
there was no other lever. * 

Mr. Johnston. But you enlarged upon two, which 
led me to suppose that you regarded them as the most 
important. Was not that a proper inference r 

Mr. Baldwin. I regard them as very important. 

Mr. Johnston went on to show, that the faithful 
utterance, by preaching, writing and speaking, of 
God's truth, was the most powerful and most needed 
instrumentality. He considered that the great body 
of the churches and ministers had utterly neglected 
this instrumentality. He was deeply attached to his 
church; but did he believe it to be helping to hold 
the millions of slaves in their chains, or conniving at 
it by silence, he would instantly be a come-outer from 
it for ever. 

Mr. Gakklson said the reason he did not go South 
to speak on slavery was not because his life would be 
sacriftctjd there, but because he saw that the su])port 
and life of the Slpve Power was in the North. He 
came to speak to this Convention, not as Vermonters, 
but as men and women; and he. wished to call all 
who are supporting slavery to iinmediate repentance, 
keeping back no truth. It was a most significant 
fact, that our friend, in si^eaking of his levers against 
slavery, omitted the ^;ji^;n'< altogether. It was no 



17 

■where. I do not wonder that he left it out ; for the 
pulpit has been so tame, so submissive to wroufr, so 
impotent for good in this land, through all this anti- 
slavery contest, that it might easily be forgotten. I 
have long ago lost all confidence in, and respect for, 
the religion of this land — mark me, sir, I say the 
American religion, not the religion which Jesus Christ 
preached and lived. Our friend said that, if called 
upon to leave the Church of Christ, in order to be an 
abolitionist, he could not do it. Is our friend an abo- 
litionist ? Does he believe it to be God's truth ? How 
then can it be at variance with the Christian religion ? 
And why should he allow the intimation that it pos- 
sibly can be to escape from his lips ? I was struck by 
our friend's position in regard to remaining in a cor- 
rupt church. He acknowledged the church to be 
corrupt, but would stay in it and purify it. Would 
he advise a Baptist brother to that course, who should 
be found in a Presbyterian church ? No, he would 
say to him, ' Come out at once and for ever ! ' Our 
friend referred to the Bible as the word of God. He 
had no right to make this assumption in an anti-sla- 
very convention. But, said Mr. G., for thirty years, 
I have gone to the Bible, quoting it and using it 
probably more than any other man in the land on 
this subject, and I have gone to it for the support of 
justice and of freedom against oppression. Mean- 
while, the pulpits and ministers of the land have gone 
to the same Bible for the support and sanctioning of 
slavery, and they are Christians, forsooth, and I am 
an infidel ! I think he best honors the Bible who 
uses it best, and for the best purposes and ends. 
Mr. Garrison gave way for an adjournment. 



18 

Afternoon. Mr. Garrison resumed. "We ought 
to be united. There is no excuse for us, if we are not 
united on a subject so palpably clear and unniistakea- 
ble as this of American Slavery. When I first saw 
the slave and his wrongs, and my soul was fired on 
the subject, I went at once to my minij^ter, and to 
other ministers ; they all discouraged me, and raised 
diihculties. I waited long for them to open their 
mouths for the dumb; but when I found they would 
not act, and would be dumb, I could do no less than 
leave them. So you see we do not ask you to do what 
we have not already done ourselves. We ask you to 
forsake for ever every pro-slavery church. The spirit 
of compromise has been the bane and curse of the land ; 
it is the continual and ever-present evil spirit of this 
people; and therefore Slavery has always been the 
conqueror, and the Right always driven to the wall. 
Expediency is well enough in cases where no moral 
principle is involved ; never where it is. Men come 
to the abolitionists and ask them to give up something 
of their demands, to lower the standard of Right a 
little, and to take away some of the rigor of the Golden 
Rule. Mr. President, they come to the wrong quar- 
ter. Let them ask God to do that, and if he consents, 
they can act accordingly. We rejoice to hear our 
friend Mr. Baldwin say, that in his view, no slave- 
holder can be a Christian, and that he would 
admit none such to his pulpit. That is good, and 
is right, and we have no word of fault to find. 
Now, as to the Rciniblican party; — it is undeniably 
the best political party we have, the best result we 
have been able to got after nearly thirty years of agi- 



19 

tation. It contains many jrood anti-slavery individu- 
als, and on the other hand very many scUish, adven- 
turous men, who care nothing for the colored man or 
the slave. It is a piebald party. It is without prin- 
ciple. It opposes slavery in Kansas, but supports it 
in Carolina. It agrees to slavery and supports it in 

lifteen States, but when you ask for sixteen, oh ! no 

then it has a tender conscience I It goes for all the 
slavery that really exists, but against it where it does 
not but may exist. Talk of limiting sin, of localizing 
sin, it is absurd ; it is wretched morality, and I know 
it is not good Christianity. And this is Ilepublican- 
ism, — trimming, compromising, lukewarm. ♦ Because 
thou art lukewarm, says God, and neither hot nor 
cold, I wall spew thee out of my mouth.' Now, if 
we cannot honestly support this Union and Govern- 
ment, let us forsake it, and take an honest, just and 
Christian position. If the Government is corrupt, 
put it away, and make a new government. When 
government has become subversive of its just ends, it 
is the right and duty of the people to alter and abol- 
ish it ; this is what I was taught by George Washing- 
ton and Benjamin Franklin, and I thank them for it. 
I glory in the thought that the sovereignty of God 
is against this stupendous iniquity of slavery. The 
Democratic and Republican parties and a corrupt 
church may hold it up as they will — they sliall be 
put to shame. Gird themselves as they will, they 
shall be broken to pieces. If we will, we can have a 
just and glorious Union, and the cause of God and 
man shall be abundantly vindicated. 

Remarks were made by several speakers on a pe- 



20 

cuniary contribution in behalf of the Anti- Slavery 
cause and the expenses of the Convention. 

Parker Pillsbury reviewed the positions of Rev. 
Mr. Baldwin, and of the Calvinistic Baptist church to 
which he belongs, in a searching and powerful man- 
ner. 

Rev. Mr. Baldwin took the stand to reply to some 
of tlie criticisms upon his speech this morning. Be- 
cause I did not notice the pulpit as a lever, said he, 
do not think I disregard its power ; I could not men- 
tion every lever which might be used against slavery. 
When I said I would stay in a corrupt church to pu- 
rify it, I did not mean I would tolerate any wrong. 
The church to which I belong is composed of persons 
as strongly anti-slavery as myself, and therefore I 
stay in it. I have heard of the state of things men- 
tioned in regard to the Rowe street Baptist meeting- 
house, Boston, and I utterly disapprove of it, and I 
would frankly reprove its minister, should I meet 
him. I would make just as strict a test in regard to 
slaveholding as I do about baptism. As to the Re- 
publican party, I do not claim that they have made 
Kansas a free State, for it is not that yet, but I do 
claim they have saved it from being a slave State. 

Adjourned to evening. 

Evening. The Convention was first addressed by 
Parker Pillsbury, who dwelt particularly upon the 
character of the recent revival of religion, especially 
as having from the Hrst and throughout totally avoid- 
ed recognizing the great national and individual sin 
of slavery. 

Rev. N. R. Johnston interrupted Mr. P. to call in 



21 

question the relevancy of tlie topic he liad chosen ; 
but subsequently admitted that he was in part mista- 
ken, as Mr. Pillsbury made his object and aim more 
clear. 

G. C. Sampson, of Northfield, contended that the 
error of the Republicans is their admission that the 
United States Constitution guprantees the rights of 
the slaveholders. They acknowledge that their hands 
are tied. 

Mr. Pillsbury closed the discussions with some 
admirable remarks upon the specially Christian char- 
acter of our movement, and of the office of the anti- 
slavery lecturer and teacher. 

The resolutions before the Convention were laid 
upon the table. 

Benjamin W. Dyer, Jehiel Claflin, N. E,. Johnston, 
Enoch Hebard and James M. Coburn were appointed 
a Committee to call future Anti-Slavery Conventions 
in the State. 

On motion of Rev. J. Claflin, the following resolu- 
tion was unanimously adopted : — 

Resolved, That the thanks of this Convention are 
offered to the friends of freedom from abroad, for their 
earnest and eloquent speeches and addresses in vindi- 
cation of uncompromising abolitionism, and to the pro- 
prietors of this Hall for its use. 

Mr. Garrison called attention to the Massachusetts 
petition for prohibiting slave-hunting on the soil of 
that State, and urged that Vermont should undertake 
a similar work. And, on motion, it was unanimously 
Voted, That the Committee just raised be requested to 



22 

prepare and circulate a petition to the coming Legis- 
lature of Vermont, to the effect that no person shall 
be put on trial in this State, on the claim or pretence 
that he is a slave in any other State. 

The Convention then adjourned, sine die. 

The attendance at the Convention was large, and 
increased in numbers to the close of the second daj^. 
The discussions were exceedingly interesting, upon 
topics of the deepest importance, and cannot but have 
been profitable to all hearers. 



Jehiel Claflix, 
Samuel May, Jr 



N. R. JOHNSTOX, President. 
Secretaries. 



LofC. 



APPENDIX. 



The following Resolutions constitute a portion of 
the series presented to the Convention, but not acted 
upon : — 

1. Resolved, That as no man can, in reason, show 
a better title to be a freeman than any slave at the 
South — so, he who maintains the rectitude of slavery, 
in any instance, strikes a blow at the freedom of all 
mankind, and becomes an oppressor on a world-wide 
scale. 

2. Resolved, That chattel slavery is delineated in its 
whips and chains, its yokes and thumb-screws, its 
paddles and branding-irons, its drivers and blood- 
hounds, its scourgings and mutilations, its bloody 
persecutions and horrible cruelties, its abrogation of 
the marriage institution and enforced licentiousness, 
its atheistic assumptions of power above all that is 
called God, its devilish nature and accursed aim, its 
thronging perjuries and shocking blasphemies. 

3. Resolved, That the only Abolitionism we pro- 
mulgate, and call upon the nation to reduce to prac- 
tice, is embodied in the self-evident truths of the 
Declaration of Independence, and in the Golden Rule 
of the Gospel — nothing more, nothing less. 

4. Resolved, That we have but one object in view 
— the immediate liberation of the slave ; and we pro- 
nounce that statesmanship to be folly which leaves 



24 

the freedom of the slave out of sight ; that patriotism 
to be hollow which does not break his fetters ; and 
that pictj' to be spurious which does not hail him as 
a man and a brother. 

6. Resolved, That he who was before all institu- 
tions, and is to survive them all, is greater than * m 
all ; hence, that he is never to be sacrificed that they 
may be preserved ; and whenever they come in con- 
flict with his God-given rights, they are to be modi- 
fied or abolished, and he is to stand crowned with glo- 
ry and honor, as one created but a little lower than 
the angels. 

6. Resolved, That we shall allow nothing to stand 
between the slave and his emancipation — neither po- 
litical party nor religious sect, neither parchment nor 
compact, neither Constitution nor Union ; but we 
shall press through them all, or over them all, diverted 
by no side issue, intimidated by no menace, appalled 
by no danger, till we break his yoke, and place him, 
redeemed and disenthralled, upon the world-wide 
platform of a common humanity. 

7. Resolved, That if to make human liberty para- 
mount to all other considerations be fanaticism, then 
we glory in being fanatics ; that if to be in deadly an- 
tagonism to a pro-slavery religion be infidelity, then 
we are infidels ; and if to declare that a slaveholding 
Union ought to be dashed in pieces be treason, then 
we are proud of the title of traitors ; for ' the head and 
front of our offending hath this extent — no more.' 



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